Recommended for novice-to-amateurs who want an all-round portable can-do camera.

Problems:

None at all. Noise is an issue in low light, and you might want to apply noise-reduction filters post-processing for some shots...but we know that noise is an issue with any compact camera, and at least the A630's in-built noise reduction doesn't smear things.

Two minor minus points:

- the viewfinder is only useful when following moving objects, otherwise you won't use it much...but it's good that Canon continue to build these into their compacts.

- when you are filming video, you will notice a constant high-pitch tone throughout the entire audio. This is normal and has to do with the microphone speaker's proximity to the lens motor. It means that if you do shoot video, you will probably want to overlay your own audio track over it. The video quality is good enough, however, for your youtube clips etc.